Marylinn Munson & Bio Nebraska STEM Scholarship

The Bio Nebraska Foundation, together with Marylinn Munson and Bio Nebraska, is offering scholarships to Nebraska High School seniors in an effort to support and encourage students as they pursue relevant classroom study and professional experiences in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)-related fields.

Scholarships are available to students who have been accepted at a Bio Nebraska approved Nebraska college, community college or university, are planning to enroll in an undergraduate course of study in a STEM-related field, and who plan to pursue a career with a STEM-related organization. A one-time scholarship payment of $2,500 may be awarded to up to four (4) high school seniors, at the discretion of the Bio Nebraska Education Committee.

Applications will be accepted starting February 1, 2024, and must be received before 9:00am CDT April 26, 2024. Recipients will be announced in June 2024.


Eligibility Requirements

Applicants for the Marylinn Munson/Bio Nebraska STEM Scholarship must:
  1. Be a Nebraska high school senior and Nebraska resident;
  2. Be accepted for enrollment at a Bio Nebraska-approved two or four-year Nebraska college, community college or university as a full-time student in a course of study in a STEM-related field;
  3. Have a cumulative high school GPA of at least 3.2; and
  4. Exhibit professional aspirations to work in the STEM industry through an essay.
Application documents shall include the following:
  1. Completion of all fields on the online application form;
  2. Copy of official high school transcript*;
  3. Copy of official college/university acceptance letter*; and
  4. Two signed recommendation letters with no more than 1,000 words per letter – one of which must come from an applicant’s high school teacher in a STEM-related field*.

*All required documents are to be uploaded to the application form. Recommenders who require their letter of recommendation to be submitted directly, please send to [email protected].

Bio Nebraska Approved Scholarship Schools:
  • Central Community College
  • Chadron State College
  • Creighton University
  • Doane University
  • Metropolitan Community College
  • Midland University
  • Northeast Community College
  • Peru State College
  • Southeast Community College
  • University of Nebraska at Kearney
  • University of Nebraska – Lincoln
  • University of Nebraska Omaha
  • Wayne State College

Application Details

Application Deadline:

Applications must be received before 9:00am CDT on April 26, 2024.

Selection Process:

The Bio Nebraska Education Committee will review each application and make final decisions.

Scholarship Funds:

Selected recipients must submit their official fall class schedule to Bio Nebraska to receive their scholarship. Funds will then be sent directly to the school bursar to cover expenses (tuition, books, room & board) during the the student’s first year. Failure to provide the official class schedule by the deadline will result in forfeiture of the scholarship.


Scholarship Recipients


About Marylinn Munson

Marylinn Munson has worked in the life science, biotechnology and agriculture industries for more than 20 years. Currently she is on three Boards; Bio Nebraska Foundation, RAIN Incubator advancing STEM, and Recombinetics solving intractable challenges through gene editing. She has held international leadership roles at industry-leading biotech and life science companies. At Neogen she led the Genomics business; she managed the international genomics informatics field team at Qiagen; built and managed a field sales team and an international operations group where she was responsible for 60 percent of Illumina’s global business; and part of a Core Strategy Team, business development and marketing at Agilent. At Amersham Biosciences (GE Healthcare), she sold Next Generation Systems in North America, many of which were used as part of the Human Genome Project. Marylinn’s passion for excellence, people and customers has made her the recipient of industry awards including the Federal Labs Consortium Award for Technology Transfer. She is listed as an inventor on U.S. patents.

About Bio Nebraska Foundation

The Bio Nebraska Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization focused on workforce development and education affiliated with Bio Nebraska. The Foundation aims to aid in the development of a highly educated and diverse Nebraska workforce by providing scholarships to Nebraska students and educational programming for professionals interested in advancing their careers in biosciences. Bio Nebraska is a nonprofit trade association tasked with supporting, promoting, and catalyzing the biosciences in Nebraska. For more information, visit bionebraska.org/foundation.